How much has your plan of which residents you want to keep permanently changed since starting ACNH? Which villagers do/did you want?

[Bluebellie]

When I first started the game, I thought I would have all the same characters I had in new leaf. I had Kiki, Roscoe, Rodeo, Muffy, Hamphrey, Ken, Nan, Mathilda , Agnes, and Cole.

Some of these have stayed the same but I did make some changes in the game.
The ones that stayed the same are: Rodeo, Roscoe, Nan, Mathilda, Agnes, and Cole.

Ken and Hamphrey unfortunately didn’t cut it. Their designs looked way to blue to my liking, and their houses don’t quite match my town like the others do. Kiki her design is cute, but unfortunately her house looks too nice. It’s bright orange in a neighborhood of mainly brown and grey houses. Muffy I really wanted her to fit in, but I don’t know I couldn’t get attached to her like I did in new leaf. They removed her fluff and gave sheep sweaters. It just doesn’t look as nice.

Before the game came out I was certain I wanted Raddle and Lucky to be in my new horizon town when it came out, so I actually purchased their amiibos ( fan made ones ).
Raddle worked out and he is now a permanent, but unfortunately, lucky just doesn’t seem to fit in my town. I quite liked his design better in new leaf ( he seemed scarier and less white. In New horizon he looks very very bright white). Kind of hurts my eyes.

When I first say Raymond, I thought he might also look great in my town. I got him really early but something wasn’t clicking, and let him go. Recently I got him back , but again I had the same issue and let him go. I really wanted to like Raymond, but something was off. His house exterior also I didn’t like too much.

I haven’t decided who I want permanently.
I’m still struggling with a couple. I initially wanted all my villagers to be darker and the color black. However, I started adding greys and it looks just as nice.

So far I have: Nan, Mathilda, Cole , Raddle, Agnes, Rodeo, Roscoe , Curt, Avery, Blaire.
Curt I think he is a keeper but I’m not 100% sure.
I know I for sure am not keeping Blaire. I just haven’t found anyone to replace her with. I was thinking Barold ( I’ve had him before and love him....but bringing him back will mean I have two bears).
Avery is a maybe ( he fits he is ok, but if I find someone else to replace him, he is gone). His house is so perfect though where I placed him.

I’m just struggle in go with those two last spots. Since I already finished the layout of my town, I just have to find villagers I like whose house fit nice where I have Blaire and Avery.

 

[daringred_]

it's changed once, but i might still keep my original line-up. we'll see.

currently, i'm sat at 7/10 of my dreamies -- punchy, kid cat, bob, lucky, biskit, ketchup and vivian. i've been holding off on finding lolly and coco so i can experience other villagers and get their photos. which leaves me with the 10th plot. it was originally meant for marshal, who i wanted to carry over from one of my NL towns. the problem is that i've since, surprisingly, become attached to henry, my forced smug villager from the start of the game. i got his picture a long time ago (at which point i said i'd let him leave), and even planned to let my girlfriend take him, but every time he asks to move, i find myself unable to let him because he's become such a gay icon to us. smugs have a very camp personality to begin with imo, and he talks about "being gay" all the time (when the villagers asked me what my favorite sport/hobby was, i typed in "being gay" lmao) while constantly carrying around the little handbag item or wearing the green sunglasses i gave him. work it, henry!

i want to move marshal in still, but i really can't bear to let henry (or any of my dreamies) go, so there's just no place for him right now. maybe that'll change when i finally move in coco and lolly, but i don't know for sure. for now, henry is sun hill's resident smug.

 

[tiffanistarr]

When I started playing I was pleasantly surprised with my starters. I had Reneigh and Coach. Coach I adopted in NL accidentally and grew to love him so i was excited he followed me to my island and I wanted to bring most of my NL villagers over.

in NL I had:
Bones
Fauna
Shari
Lobo
Coach
Nana
Eugene
Tia
Freya
Portia

I knew Freya, Tia, and Eugene weren’t coming over. I got lucky with Coach as a starter then as soon as it was possible I started scanning in amiibos.

I ended up keeping some of the starters I still have Coach and Ruby though Ruby for sure I want to move out as the peppy villagers are just very annoying.

I also want to maybe get rid of Coach and scan him back in eventually because i hate their homes that really aren’t their homes. Like he has a bed and a table and that’s it. Same with Ruby, i want them to live in their dream houses and they aren’t getting that with those awful wood block homes.

I just don’t know who is going to replace those two right now as it’s quite a big decision for me. I had solid plans at the start but you really end up falling love with some random villagers. For example i got Ozzie for the first time and i absolutely love him. He is very adorable. I also have always loved Pietro and finally moved him in and i hated the smug personality so i ended up moving him out.

I’m trying better to just go with the flow and not be so hung up on those things. I can always scan them back in if they leave!

 

[MelodyRivers]

I voted other. Having never played any animal crossing before, I had no idea what the villagers were like so I planned on rotating them out whenever I could so I could get to know them. There were certain ones I knew I never wanted like Pietro( sorry guys I don’t like clowns) but I didn’t really plan on permanents. Until I met Melba my little koala bean. I love her design, her catchphrase, her house everything. I can’t imagine my island without her so she is my only permanent

 

[Rika092]

Yes, it has changed so much since I first envisioned my villager line up! Initially I too thought I would be getting most of my favs in new leaf, so this is what I had in mind: marshal, Julian, merengue, pango, Mira, genji, Diana, teddy, dobie, Erik/beau. But then I decided to be more picky to only get villagers that match my island theme, which is more of a blend between cottage core and forest core, so I had to rethink of my lineup and pick only ones that are more of a neutral palette and in species that naturally inhabit in forests (deers, cubs, rabbits...) so I have to completely redo my dreamies.

I then went through multiple iterations of dreamie lineup as I become more and more picky XD. One thing I made sure of is that I would have every single personality on my island, and I also tried to minimize species duplication. Snooty, out of all personalities, gave me a lot of trouble... For instance, I at some point wanted to have Whitney as my snooty, but then decided that I don’t really like her pastel-colored house exterior and she would be a second wolf on my island since I’m very set on having a wolf as cranky. Then I wanted to have robin, but then end up not liking the idea due to her brightish color....lol long story short, this is my current dreamie list:

Marshal, Erik, Fauna (Too cute to let go so I tell myself she’s not a duplicate as Erik is a moose and a different subspecies lol), maple, gabi, hamlet,Fang (may change to dobie), Katt, grizzly, Gloria (kinda not a fan of her modern house exterior but I’m out of options for snooty at this point XD)

 

[. Rarity .]

I restarted my island to make it completly based on my novel Im currently writing, and I picked which villagers I wanted to have in advance, since each of them represented each character. It took a week and a half to pick each villager. I even changed up genders. So some of the male characters are represented by female villagers. It took a very long time to go through every villager. Those villagers were--
/
-Dotty: represents the main character. Since her eyes turned red, I saw it as his inner demons)
--
Admieral: represents another moody prince. I wanted a moody, cranky animal and settled on Admiral because hes also a bird, and birds represent him.
--
Marshal: represents the yellow kingdom, and the main chatacter's love intetest. I picked him because he looks, acts like him, and has similar names
---
Kiki: represents the main character's best friend. I picked Kiki because the others find him to be bad luck since hes only ever with my character. But changed to kid Cat shortly after, because of personality.. But I think I would use Flora if I did this again because his kingdom is symbolized by flamingos.
--
Coco: Represents the main character's twin. Coco fits perfectly with that. Not only because their both rabbits, but other reasons too.
--
Lily: Represents an innocent princess. Adorable, and since her kingdom is turqous, and shes a sweet villager. She was perfect
---
Whitney: The wolf princess of the red kingdom. From the first time I saw Whitney I knew she was the one
--
June: Represents another princess, and lives in a desert, has tan skin, and an innocent look. So she was perfect.from her colors, look. Perfect
--
Ruby: Represents another prince who is a psycho. Hes got red eyes, and white hair also is extremely playful. So Ruby was perfect. I also made her a bit crazy
--
Stitches: Represents a character thats not well known, but has scars, and stitches all over them, and so thats why I picked Stitches
---
My character, Trent, is actually the name of my antagonist in the story, and I picked him, because hes Bssically in control of the entire island since all my Kingdoms in my island are based on colors, and my island matches with areas like that. Trent rules all of it, as the prince of the Rainbow Kingdom. So that was my planned name for it. Because I didn't plan on changing anything
For about a month and a half nothing changed.

Each villager was to represent a character of my novel, and after getting them all that was how it was for a while. Many villagers came and went, I had different villagers come and visit. It started with getting Ankha and my planned villagers changed. I started to get villagers I hadn't planned but really wanted, so it wasn't a bad thing

I gave up many of them for a change of pace. Dotty, Marshal, and Kid cat have been with me the longest. Dotty left the island after Bunnie left. So my plan shifted alot, and with my current island I have ten that I don't think I could separate with

I changed my plans to the prequel to my novel and am now basing it around that. But rules like, only a wolf can be in the red forest Since hes now in an area that was more meant for the main character, and the Red kingdom, which are represented by wolves, who also represen my antiheros, were in the forest. That will probably change in the future

For now I don't think I'll be changing up anyone, the only one Id really change for is Kitty. Because I love her.

But Im also still sticking to my dark fantasy novel, slightly more modren so things did chchangethe main land layout changed as well, but my story worlds are still across the bridge, so that part is still here.

Marshal, and Kid Cat are my longest running villagers, and have basically been with me since the begining. But as of right now im pretty happy with who I have. So I doubt Ill change things up. At least not for a bit.

I still ponder about going back to my original plan.

 

[Serabee]

Mine changed in the sense that I originally intended to have "permanent" villagers but have since realized I want more diversity. So I've stopped thinking of any resident as "permanent" anymore, and instead focus on keeping villagers for a few weeks/months and then letting them move on, and moving someone else in. Some villagers stay longer then others, but I don't think of any as "permanent", and it's made the game a lot more relaxing/enjoyable for me!

 

[ForgottenT]

I've never had a specific list of 10 villagers to permanently have, but I have always had a big list of favorites, and quite a few villagers have made the list since launch.
Only villager that I will always have in my town no matter what, and in all games is Ruby.
She have been my absolute favorite villager since Wild World the second I first saw her, and she have been with me ever since, across all of the games.

 

[Nefarious]

I only planned to have 4 permanents and the rest of the slots open for cycling. That plan flew out the window as soon as I found Dobie while island hopping. He's been with me ever since.
Then Cherry, and Eugene, and Olivia, and Vivian and--

 

[Arckaniel]

I was actually quite flexible with my old supposedly "permanent" lineup as I just went with villagers that only look good aesthetically, but the supposedly "permanent" lineup changed cuz now I decided I want villagers that actually fit the theme of my island, which is cottagecore/forestcore. Here's a comparison of my old "permanent" lineup to now my new "permanent" lineup (quote unquote cuz I'll never know if I again decide to change my lineup lol) :

old:
Lily
Beau
Diana
Audie
Chief
Lolly
Lucky
Muffy
Judy
Julian

new:
Lily
Beau
Purrl
Bunnie
Dobie
Maple
Coco
Deirdre
Teddy
Marshal

so from the old to new, only two villagers are actually permanent which are Lily and Beau cuz they're my all time favorite villagers lol, so far my progress for the new villagers is 5/10, so I'm already halfway!

 

[Mattician]

Going into the game I thought I had a few in mind I'd want from each personality type. And I'd invite the first one I found. I have a few I just got lucky with and couldn't resist inviting them.

I've replaced two villagers I thought would be permanent, Iggly and Zell. Iggly was my starter Jock and I also had him in my starting five in New Leaf. Zell was my first forced campsite visitor. His design was unique and I liked his house.

But Iggly and Zell weren't who I was originally looking for from the Jock and Smug personalities.
I let Zell move out when Raymond appeared in my campsite, and I only wanted one Smug. Then I let Iggly move out because I wanted to find Louie as my Jock. And I eventually found Louie on a mystery island.

But then there's a couple of cases where I found someone I didn't know much about that turned out to be permanents. Static and Bluebear.
Static is now my favorite villager. He was my second ever campsite visitor. He's my only Cranky villager.
Bluebear I found on a mystery island and immediately wanted her. I like her colors. She's my only Peppy villager.

The only permanent I have left to find is Kiki or Lolly. They've been the two I've been looking for since the beginning. I've been lucky enough to find a lot of the villagers I wanted, but neither of those two have popped up yet.

 

[VexTheHex]

This was my first AC game, and I did go into it somewhat blind as I didn't know I could reroll my starters or whatnot. However, a old friend from High School and I ended up making lists a bit into the game of 50 we were interested in and the 10 we wanted on our island. This happened a bit after my forced Smug camper as Henry got his footing in my top 10 when he showed as I was already heavily considering him or Drift.

My original planned 10 were Henry, Colton, Reneigh, Roscoe, Leonardo, Bianca, Beau, Poppy, Sheldon, and Pecan.

Those were the goals and I did work towards it. Dropping the starter villagers and hunting towards the ones I wanted. However as anyone who village hunts knows, there's times you give up or choose others along the way. For example, I found Reneigh after a very long hunt while I have never actually ran into Pecan on any hunts. This lead to me taking in many that were in my top 50 or just sparked some interest in me like Pierce, Sly, or Peanut. Meanwhile I actually loss interest in Leonardo and Bianca when I saw them whether by island hopping or by dream world visits.

So I ended up reaching towards 10 that seemed like permanent and they were Henry, Colton, Reneigh, Wolfgang, Pierce, Freya, Filbert, Peanut, Molly, and a undecided finalist.

However, my personal curiosity on other villagers and who would be the final pick ate at me some to the point that I let go of Molly. I began considering the idea that I'd have a solid 8 and 2 for rotation. But I struggled with this as like Merengue and Sheldon seemed too new to let go and I wanted to give them a longer time on my island to form more thoughts and memories of them. So, I ended up letting Freya go. Then after finding Julian and not wanting two Smug horses... I let Colton go. And I'm starting to ponder if I want a final 10 or not.

Currently I have Henry, Reneigh, Pierce, Wolfgang, Filbert, Peanut, Sheldon, Etoile, and Julian. Merengue is moving out tonight actually. I struggle seeing letting Henry go since he choose me. (and I really wanted a frog) Reneigh and Pierce are twos of my faves and may end up never leaving. I also have a twin star theme going with Filbert, Peanut, Etoile, and Julian which makes me question if I'll let them go since it would hurt my star collection going on.

My current plan is to cycle through villagers a bit more (kind of want to go through one of every species) than settle on a 10, but I do worry I'll burn out before then!

 

[kurisu]

everyone i have on my island now is who i decided pretty early on i wanted to have, or is pretty close. audie and judy were later decision but i wasn't really dead set on my last 2 spots and ended up liking them a lot so i brought them in. however now there are a few of them i'm planning on letting go. fauna just left actually and i'm island hopping for her replacement as we speak, and i'm going to move ankha, kabuki and phoebe out eventually as well just for more variety. if we weren't limited to just 10 villagers they'd definitely stay, but c'est la vie.

i will say that i will take felicity and diana to the grave LMAO. they're my absolute favorites and there isn't a force on earth that could make me let them go.

 

[Kattea]

Yes, definitely. There are certain villagers I thought I wanted, but I just don’t “connect” with. And then there are other villagers I got for the best friend reactions, and then got attached.

 

[Seelie]

NH was my first Animal Crossing game, so I had no idea what I was doing when I started, lol. I did eventually settle into a cottagecore theme and lined up villagers accordingly -- so my first "set" of permanent villagers was Shep, Butch, Deirdre, Beau, Fauna, Genji, Ruby, Kiki, Purrl, and Dom.

Eventually I decided to mix it up, so I let Fauna, Kiki, and Purrl move out and replaced them with Maple, Poppy, and Pecan, and then I did some more villager overhauls and swapped out the remaining villagers of the original set with Bones, Maddie, Dobie, Henry, Lily, Marshal, and Marty.

aaand then I decided that the limitations of the cottagecore theme weren't for me, and scrapped the whole island.

Right now, my new theme is more of a mash-up, aiming for a downtown urban area surrounded by rural farm and forest areas, and accordingly I feel like I've got a ton more freedom with my villagers as well. I currently have, in order of move-in, Dotty, Chester, Olive, Pashmina, Mitzi, Marshal, Dom, Wolfgang, Vivian, and Cole. Of them, my permanent villagers are Chester, Olive, Marshal, and Dom -- the other six will stay until I have their photos, and then will move out.

So I guess Dom's stuck around on my permanent list? I think that Coco and Dobie will also end up being permanents, if I find them, as well as possibly Lily.

 

[peachycrossing9]

All the villagers except 3, I had absolutely no idea I would be having them on my island.

When I first started, I had a pretty solid list of villagers that I wanted and most of them were brought over from my New Leaf towns. Those villagers were: Alfonso, Julian, Wolfgang, Diana, Rosie, Chief, Sherb (when I found out about him, I instantly had to have him), Bluebear, Skye and Lily.

Oof. Out of all of those babies I only have Alfonso, Skye and Wolfgang still remaining. Alfonso and Wolfgang are my two absolute favourites and I can't imagine not having them on my island. They are 100% permanent. Skye i'm not sure, I do have quite an attachment to her though.

The only villagers from that list that I didn't ever end up getting were Chief and Bluebear. Everyone else I have had at some stage.

Never thought I would get rid of Julian and Diana since they are precious to me but eventually after having them on my island for months, I let them go.
I thought I would really love Sherb and keep him forever, but I ended up getting bored of him kind of quickly. He is adorable though.
Rosie is my queen, and I adore her but since I have her amiibo card it's not hard for me to cycle her out.
Lily is a baby, and I had her on my island for a very long time. But eventually I ended up giving her to my friend since her number one favourite is Lily and she loves her more than I do xD.

Now my line up of villagers is very different to how I thought it would be. But that's just because there are so many cuties out there that I want to have. As I finally started to decide on a theme, I figured out which villagers would also fit best with that theme, so those are the villagers I hunted for or scanned in. I had a feeling I wasn't going to keep the same 10 villagers forever, because I get bored easily. XD

 

[deana]

I didn't really have a plan for who I wanted when I started, I had a plan for who I didn't want. I told myself I wasn't going to have any villagers who I already had in New Leaf since I already had a chance to get to know them. But then I got Cookie as a random move in and I just can't bring myself to let her go so I am more open to the idea of having old favourites move to my island now.

 

[Parkai]

i paid like 400 million bells for raymond. he is not leaving my island, even though now i don't really care for him
the rest are dreams i just used amigos for

 

[moonlights]

Mine has changed completely. When I started playing I wanted all my NL favourites, so Merengue, Zucker, Apple and so on, and now I'm welcome to really any villager moving in and I'm letting all of them go.

At the moment I am searching for Bunnie and Rosie though!

 

[niko@kamogawa]

The last time I moved a villager was on October.

Marina is still on probationary period. I am not even sure about wanting to move her out since it's been so long. (I will make that call when the time comes. For now, I voted for the second option.)